cArak il-Emir.

21

terrace wall which, at this point, is preserved to a height of nearly 3 meters. Of the
gateway itself only the foundations and a few fragments remain upon the site, the
remainder of the structure having rolled far down the steep slope into the valley of

Ill. 10. Cornice of Gate N°. I.



Ill. 11. Cornice of Gate N°. I.

the Wadi is-Sir. The foundations consist of a few well squared blocks still in place on
either side of a road-way 3 meters wide: they formed the bases of two piers, each
2 m. X 5 m., standing with their major axes parallel to the road (Ill. 12. A.). The road
at this point was upon a terrace 7 meters wide, and the remains of massive terrace
walls are to be seen, one above the road and the other below it, on either side of the
gateway. The only remnants of architectural details lying in the immediate vicinity are
three sections of a light Doric entablature (Ill. 12. B) aggregating 3.46 m. in length,
with architrave and frieze executed upon the same blocks, fragments of a Corinthian
capital for a half column with finely carved details, like the capitals of the upper story
of the Kasr il-cAbd, a badly weathered section of a Doric half-column with sharp arrises,
and, further down the slope, a triglyph block, 53 centimeters high and 46 centimeters
wide, and a block, like an oblong metope (Ill. 12. C), measuring 53 X 77 cm. with a
well carved, though somewhat mutilated, relief of an eagle which reproduces the pose
of the eagle on certain Ptolemaic coins. It would be quite impossible to form even a



B.


•Arakil-EmTr·
• GATE hlRH'


c.

Ill. 12.

conjecture as to the design or proportions of the superstructure of this gate from the
details just enumerated. If the fragments all belonged to the building, it is apparent
that the Doric and Corinthian orders were combined in this structure as in the Kasr